Bill Murray explains why ‘Ghostbusters 2’ was “unsatisfying”
In the 1980s, Hollywood cinema was thriving, with filmmakers like James Cameron, John Carpenter, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg creating box office behemoths which were bolstered by significant merchandising. Alongside films like The Terminator, RoboCop, Star Wars and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters was another merchandising goldmine that caught the imagination of fans and critics.
Telling the story of a group of middle-aged men who start up a ghost removal service in New York City, the film was illustrative of the whacky movie blockbusters that thrived in the 1980s. Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis and Ernie Hudson, the film became a classic of the era, earning almost $300million from a $25-30million budget.
Thanks to the success of the 1984 movie, a sequel was released in 1989, starring the same lead cast members, though, unlike the first movie, which was universally loved, the second film was largely panned by critics and fans alike. The film still made decent financial returns, making $215million worldwide, but it lacked the charm of the original and is often forgotten in the history of ’80s cinema.
Speaking about the legacy of the movie in a 2008 interview, Murray reflected: “When we did the sequel, it was rather unsatisfying for me because the first one to me was the goods. It was the real thing. The sequel, it was a few years later [and] there was an idea pitched. They got us all together in a room, and we all just laughed for a couple of hours and thought up a few ideas”.
Continuing the story of the original film, the sequel sees the group reviving their ghost-busting business after discovering a massive river of ectoplasm, but it lacked the focus and threat of the original movie. “So we had this idea. But it didn’t turn out to be that idea when I arrived on set. It was a whole different movie,” Murray added, “There were a few great scenes in it, but it was never the same movie. So there was never any interest in a third Ghostbusters because the second one was so disappointing for me at heart”.
Murray wasn’t the only one who was disappointed with the movie either, with director Ivan Reitman even admitting that the production team got it wrong. “It didn’t all come together. We just sort of got off on the wrong foot story-wise on that film,” he stated, with a third movie in the series being subsequently canned by the stars both in front of and behind the camera.
Eventually, Reitman would help to produce a third film in the Ghostbusters franchise, 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, where Murray, Aykroyd, Weaver, and Hudson would each return. Directed by Ivan’s son Jason Reitman, the modern-day film starred Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace and carried on the legacy of the Ghostbusters franchise, featuring recognisable iconographies such as the Ecto-1 car and the Proton Packs.
Take a look at the trailer for the second movie in the franchise, Ghostbusters II, below.
